Storing wine and open bottles
Keep it cool, dark and steady
Most wine is meant to be opened young, so you don't need a cellar. A cool, dark cupboard, the fridge and a good stopper do nearly all the work.
Last updated: Draft
Before you open it
Wine likes a spot that is cool, dark and steady, ideally around 10–15 °C, though an even temperature matters more than the exact figure. Heat and big swings in temperature do the most harm: they flatten the fruit, and a really hot spell can force the cork upwards. So skip the top of the fridge, the cupboard by the oven and, above all, a car parked in the sun. A low cupboard away from outside walls, or the floor of a wardrobe, usually does the job. Keep bottles out of direct sunlight too, especially wines in clear glass.
Bottles with a cork that you plan to keep for months should lie on their side, so the wine keeps the cork damp and tight. Screw-capped bottles can stand.
Keeping a bottle for years won’t improve most wines. Everyday styles such as young whites, rosados, Prosecco and joven reds are meant to be opened within a year or two, when they taste brightest. Only some wines get better with age, such as certain Reservas and Gran Reservas, and even then it depends on how they were kept. The kitchen fridge will do for a few weeks, not for years: in the long run it is too cold, and its dry air is hard on corks.
After you open it
Once a bottle is open, air gets to work on the wine. Over a few days the aromas grow fainter, the taste turns dull and, left long enough, the wine sours towards vinegar. A few habits slow that down:
- Close the bottle as soon as you’ve poured, with its own cork, its screw cap or a reusable stopper.
- Keep it in the fridge, whatever its colour: cold slows down the changes air causes. Take a red out a little before serving so it isn’t too cold (see serving temperatures).
- The less air above the wine, the longer it lasts. A small leftover keeps better in a smaller clean bottle that it nearly fills. Keep open bottles standing up.
- For sparkling wine, use a proper sparkling-wine stopper that clamps onto the bottle, since the original cork will no longer fit. A teaspoon hanging in the neck is a popular trick, but it probably does little; any freshness it seems to keep is down to the fridge.
How long an open bottle keeps
Closed again and kept in the fridge, an open bottle usually stays pleasant for roughly this long:
| Wine | Keeps for |
|---|---|
| Sparkling, with a proper stopper | 1–3 days |
| Light whites and rosados | 3–5 days |
| Fuller whites and reds | 3–5 days |
| Fino and Manzanilla | 2–3 days |
| Pedro Ximénez and other sweet fortified wines | A few weeks |
| Bag-in-box | Several weeks |
Every wine is different: some firm young reds seem just as good on the second day, while delicate or very old wines can fade within hours. Pale, bone-dry Fino and Manzanilla lose their tangy, sea-breeze freshness surprisingly fast, whereas dark, sticky Pedro Ximénez is far sturdier. A bag-in-box lasts because the bag shrinks as the wine is poured, so little air gets in; check any date printed on the box. Above all, trust your nose.
Has it gone off?
Your nose and eyes will usually tell you. Look out for:
- A sour, vinegary smell, or one like nail-polish remover.
- A flat, tired taste or a smell of bruised apple in a wine that shouldn’t have it. Some styles, such as Amontillado and Oloroso, are meant to taste nutty; a young white or rosado isn’t.
- A browning colour: a white turning deep gold or amber, a young red turning brick-brown.
- A prickle of fizz in a still wine, unless it was made with a light sparkle on purpose, as a few young whites are. It can mean the wine has started to ferment again in the bottle.
A musty smell of damp cardboard is a different problem: the wine was probably corked from the start.
A wine that is only a little tired doesn’t have to go to waste: it can still go into a stew, a risotto or a pan sauce. If it has turned to vinegar or smells musty, though, pour it away, because those smells end up in the food.